Hose storage devices have been historically sold as a packaged product requiring assembly of a multiplicity of separate parts or sub-assemblies within a carton. Packaging optimized the transportation and storage of the product for the maker and seller, particularly since the task of assembly was left to the buyer to perform. Clearly, the buyer would prefer to purchase a fully assembled unit without having to pay a separate fee for assembly.
Assembly of the product by the maker destroys the transportation and storage optimization inherent in conventional packaging. U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,391 discloses a hose storage device structure which attempts to alleviate the transportation and storage problem which comes with full product assembly by the maker. Specifically, the devices were made stackable in a nesting relation by constructing the hose reel structure with oblong end flanges enabling the nested stack to have a greater product density per unit height. The oblong end flange construction provides disadvantages as compared with a conventional circular end flange construction. The irregular shape of the oblong end flanges on the hose cart taught in the '391 patent makes it difficult to roll or unroll a length of hose. Lateral movement of the hose when unrolling or rolling up the hose can cause the hose to extend over the shorter side of the oblong end flange. The hose can then become entangled with the higher side of the oblong end flange as the hose reel structure rotates. This situation does not occur with generally circular hose reel end flanges because the edge of the flange is generally the same radial distance from the hose reel structure surface at any given point. The oblong end flanges, however, are vital to the '391 hose cart because the cart will not stack with other similar hose carts in a nesting arrangement without the oblong end flanges. There exists a need to provide a stackable hose storage device which provides a highly desirable stacking height and at the same time retains the conventional circular end flanges in the hose reel structure.